Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Episode 8 of Doctor Who series 6 finally aired last Saturday! In case my previous posts didn't quite convey the message, I was pretty excited about it. I was even lucky enough that dear ol' hurricane Irene waited until AFTER the episode was over to kill the power in my area. But let's get on to the review. From here on in there are, as River likes to say, SPOILERS. So don't read on if you don't want to know details about the episode. I had thought to do a spoiler free review, but it just didn't seem possible.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Over the weekend my area of Long Island got fairly well pounded by hurricane Irene. There were evacuations in nearby areas that were only 5 minutes away from my house. All the local businesses closed up early on Saturday and many of them boarded up their windows in preparation of the storm.

The winds started up by Saturday afternoon but it didn't get bad until late at night and most of Sunday. Fortunately our power held out long enough to watch "Let's Kill Hitler". I was already into watching it a second time at midnight when the power went out at 12:45am. Sunday I was able to go to a friend's house and charge my phone and my mom's phone so we were ready in case the power didn't come back for a while. While I was at her house I checked the LIPA site and found that nearly half of Long Island had lost power.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Just had to say.... We are in the final few hours before "Let's Kill Hitler"!! According to my countdown, we're at 7 hours and counting! I'm enjoying the Doctor Who marathon that is airing on BBC America. For those of you who can't or aren't watching, might I suggest checking out my picture blog of "A Good Man Goes to War" to refresh the memory before tonight?

I'm sure most people have seen this already, but I love this little video. It's a 'prequel' to "Let's Kill Hitler" and it's incredibly well done and suitably heart-wrenching.

Friday, August 26, 2011

As the new season of Doctor Who approaches (tomorrow night, yay!) I've been going back and trying to find things to wear that would pass as what Amy Pond wears in the episodes. Mostly I've been focusing on her pirate outfit she wears in "Curse of the Black Spot" because I plan on wearing that for Halloween. I mean, come on, Amy Pond + Pirate = best ever.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The other day my mom brought me a kid's Star Wars t-shirt that she picked up at the store. I didn't immediately understand why because it was such a small size there was no way it would fit me. She said she planned on making it into a bag for me. Again, I couldn't really visualize it. Then she sat me down, showed me how to make it and how to use the sewing machine and suddenly my shirt went from this:

Monday, August 22, 2011

In five millennia, the Mandalorians fought with and against a thousand armies on a thousand worlds. They learned to speak as many languages and absorbed weapons technology and tactics from every war. And yet, despite the overwhelming influence of alien cultures, and the absence of a true homeworld and even species, their own language not only survived but changed little, their way of life and their philosophy remained untouched, and their ideals and sense of family, of identity, of nation were only strengthened. Armor does not make a Mandalorian. The armor is simply a manifestation of an impenetrable, unassailable heart.

- Mandalorians: Identity and Language, published by the Galactic Institute of Anthropology

Friday, August 19, 2011

One of my favorite hobbies as a kid used to be watching my parent's reaction when I told them a movie came out x number of years ago, just to watch their faces as they flashed back to the moment in time when they were sitting in that movie theater watching that movie and realizing that, while it feels like not too long ago, it actually was many more years than they realized.

My karmic justice for that is to have my younger cousins do the same thing to me, and have this XKCD comic strip rub it in my face further.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Even now I can smell the clothes
Freshly from the wash
Still hot from the dryer

Even now I can smell your skin
To wrap you in a towel
Lay you on the bed
And try to love you

Even now I can feel your arms
I can feel your breast
I can hear your songs
And I always can find you again

Even now I can feel your hand
Gently over mine
With almost no weight at all

Even now I can feel your eyes
Watch me as I strum
Much too late at night

Even now I can see you smile
I can hear you hum
I can hear you sing
And I always can find you again

Even in the dark of night
Even in the lowest light
Even as the world outside
Is spinning, and spinning

Even now I can feel your hair
Blow across my cheek
As we sit in one of two chairs

Even now I can feel your face
Resting on my chest
Wrestling for sleep
And failing at it

Even now I can see you sleep
I can see you dream
I can see you fly
And I always can find you again
And I always can find you again
And I always can find you

- Dashboard Confessional

The only reason I have this song is because it's on the NCIS soundtrack. I'd never listened to it until the other day and now I really enjoy it so I thought I'd share it. For those who haven't heard it, here's a video.

Monday, August 15, 2011

One of my new favorite shows to watch is In Plain Sight. I spend more of my time watching shows on USA now than anything else. Anyway, if you watch In Plain Sight you know the character Mary Shannon is famous for her sarcasm and witty remarks. In addition to the Wisecrack generator on the USA network site I found this list of sarcastic remarks.

Friday, August 12, 2011

The other day my mom sent me this site with the following comic. All I know is, it's absolutely true. High school teachers either never attended college themselves, or have been out of college so long that they don't remember what their experience was like.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

I have three animals. As mentioned in my page about them, I have Guy the cockatiel, Saphira the lovebird and Kara Reiko, the pekingese/shih tzu mix. I've had Guy since I was 10 years old and she's smart enough to realize that when she hears the sound of the garage door opening that means someone is coming home and she gets excited and has a very distinct squawk for when this occurs. Before I got Kara it was always nice to come home to those squawks, and now it's nice to come home to both the squawks and Kara waiting at the door for me to come in.

The funny part is, according to my mom (since I'm usually the one coming in from outside so I don't witness it first hand) that Kara has obviously learned Guy's squawk because on occasion Guy will sound the alert of someone returning to the house before Kara notices. And the funnier part? Guy has caught on to the fact that Kara knows her 'someone is coming' squawk. So, according to my mom, every now and then, just for kicks, Guy will sound the alarm and Kara will run to the door. Except no one will come. I say Guy is doing it on purpose so she and Saphira can get a few chuckles at the dog. Especially since Guy never used to sound off false alarms until Kara showed up.

Anyone who doesn't have pets might not believe me, but I'm sure someone out there has some funny stories about how their pets interact. If you do, I'd love to hear them!

As a side note, my birds are smart, but they are not talented. At least, not like this bird. I wish I knew how to teach them this!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Well, a few days ago my second attempt at a poll closed. I didn't get as many results as I had in the first poll. Not sure if that's due to the question or just fewer people visiting my blog who cared to vote.

It has some really great pictures of some of the new sneakers and jackets that Adidas is releasing for the Fall/Winter 2011 collection. I already have a pair of Darth Vader sneakers that I bought from last year's collection. I don't wear them that regularly since I like to keep them in good condition, but they're fun when I want to wear cool sneakers that I'm sure people don't even notice are actually Star Wars sneakers.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

The other day I was finally able to track this book down at the library here in the city. I'm still getting used to the system here, but I dove in head first and now have about 8 books on hold waiting for me. But back to Star Wars. I know Paul Kemp is new to the land of writing Star Wars novels, and for that I definitely cut him a bit of slack. However, the first book I read of his, Crosscurrent, was much better than I had expected from a first time Star Wars novelist. Going on that I decided to give Deceived a chance even though I typically have a hard time getting through the books that take place thousands of years before anything I'm used to reading about in the Star Wars timeline. It's not so much that I mind not having the usual characters around, it's that I get very confused when they start tossing around the words 'Republic' and 'Empire' and I have to keep reminding myself it's not the same factions that I'm used to because they don't exist for another thousand or so years according to Star Wars history.

Monday, August 1, 2011

I sometimes have a tendency to get a little obsessed with things. Just a little bit. Like the time I watched X-men 10 times in seven days when my dad first bought me a VHS copy when I was little. Or the time I watched the first episode of season seven of NCIS seven times in four days. Or, most recently, when I watched "A Good Man Goes to War", the last episode of the first part of season 6 of Doctor Who, 6 times in less than 48 hours thanks to an iTunes rental.

But I don't obsesses... much.

To steer away from my habits, wouldn't it be more fun to go back through some of the highlights of the episode complete with screencaps that I took while watching it? That sounds like fun to me. Almost as much as watching the whole episode over again! Which I would do... if my iTunes rental hadn't ended a few hours ago. Damn.